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Posted On: February 21th 2007
Posted By: Bryan Kremkau
Source: File 13 |
Sterling's "Cursed" EP comes out on File 13 Records March 20th 2007.
After 2003's acclaimed self-titled second album and extensive touring Chicago's Sterling has, as they have for each album, regrouped with a significantly different lineup. This time original members drummer Tony Lazzara (Milemarker / Atombombpocketknife) and guitarist Eric Chaleff, are joined by Al Burian (Milemarker) on bass (Al had played on a number of Sterling tours, but has never written and recorded with them), and pianist Andy Lansangan (90 Day Men, Andor Destructor).
The newly reformed quartet began work on a new album in late 2005 and debuted the material live in Chicago to awe-stricken audiences throughout 2006. The band then assembled with their longstanding recording counterpart Mike Lust at his Phantom Manor Studio to lay down the basic tracks for Cursed. The band then took their newly learned knowledge of sound engineering home to do all of the overdubs. They returned to Lust's studio to mix and manipulate the final version of the new album. The result is three meandering cinematic tracks comprising a stunning album's worth of material. Sterling's members visualized long stories to create the path for each long piece on the Cursed, a technique that also helped them to remember where what would come next for songs clocking in a up to thirteen minutes with virtually no reoccurring parts. The keyboards of the classically trained Andy Lansangan's veer from thundering grand piano to gloriously warped and effected synthesizers. Al Burian's deep growling bass furthers the band's metal influence and compliments Sterling's unorthodox use of low frequencies. Lazzara's drums are more massive than ever, crushing each section while dodging the downbeat like bullets. Meanwhile Chaleff's guitar is simply more developed, engaging, and more rock, spitting heady lines that would undoubtedly inspire Jimmy Page himself.
One of the most striking qualities of Cursed is the production value and it's uniqueness. For example, low end is usually the first thing to go in mix down due to its tendency to muddy an album, however Sterling has harnessed the low end, going so far as to even triggering deep 808 kick drum samples in unison with kick drum hits. These low-end techniques create a dark and powerful sonic wall that sounds dramatically different than a vast majority of recordings. |
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